Alliance with Spring League in works
EDMONTON If the Canadian Football League’s nine teams don’t play a single game this year, it won’t be for lack of effort or imagination.
That’s because commissioner Randy Ambrosie, the CFL’S football operations personnel, team presidents and governors will have run to ground every reasonable scenario, and some that don’t meet the smell test.
Take, for instance, the fact that Ambrosie has invited The Spring League CEO Brian Woods to present a formal proposal for a partnership between the two leagues. The men had a 20-minute introductory conversation on Wednesday and Woods has promised to deliver his proposal on Monday morning.
At its crux is Woods’ vision of having all nine CFL teams play the entirety of their shortened 2020 regular season — most likely eight games each — in at least two American cities in either the southeast or southwest quadrant of the country. Cities like Dallas, Memphis and Birmingham, Ala., have been mentioned as likely venues.
The Spring League’s five teams would play games against one another as well, and the proposal will call for pre-season games between CFL and TSL teams, employing Canadian rules. Woods made no mention of playoffs or Grey Cup games.
He believes his plan will interest the CFL’S governors if they reach the conclusion that games cannot be played in front of fans in any Canadian venues this year because of physical distancing restrictions in place to combat COVID-19.
“I think it’s not probable (the CFL will play this season in Canada),” Woods said. “I feel you need to play and this is an opportunity to split some costs with another league and still be able to hopefully satisfy some of your contractual obligations with TSN. So you’re going to miss out on ticket revenue, but we’re going to mitigate the other potential losses they could be looking at whether operating or not operating this year.”
He said he has targeted venues in the southern states because they have been the first to reopen their economies, and might be the first to allow fans at sporting events.
There are other benefits to his proposal.
“I can give them a road map for a less expensive venture. They could eliminate the practice squad. Players from The Spring League would effectively become the de facto practice squad for the CFL while their season is taking place in the United States. They would be able to mobilize battle-ready players immediately.”
He also mentioned the fact that large portions of CFL coaching staffs and player rosters are already located in the U.S.
Prior to the conversation with Woods, Ambrosie said he was “happy to talk to anybody who loves the game like we do.”
There is no harm in listening to every idea, and considering every possible return-to-play scenario. The CFL is still doing that.
“I think at some point we have looked at almost everything,” said Ambrosie. “How big will training camps be? How long will training camps be? Will there be pre-season games? How many games would we play in a regular season? What kind of playoff format would we use?
“This will be totally different than any other year in CFL history so we are willing to be somewhat unconventional in our approach.”
The CFL is still analyzing the financial and physical realities of operating out of two hub cities, most likely Regina and Winnipeg. But that’s not a certainty.
“We are still looking at, could we play in all of our CFL stadiums? Right now we don’t know. We are looking at various versions of a truncated season, which is related to how long into December we might have to go.”
Having already announced that the regular season will not start before September, the league has given itself some runway, but it is not infinite. Ambrosie has been asked to come up with a dropdead date for a decision whether to go ahead or not. Once that is reached, Ambrosie and the nine team presidents who comprise the management council will whittle down return to play options and set them in front of the governors for potential ratification.
“At some point we are going to narrow this field down to one or two very specific ideas and then test them for their viability,” Ambrosie said.
“At that stage we will present to the governors the entire story, how it will all work. It will include all of those issues related to financial considerations. At this stage we have ideas and have made progress with those ideas. But we haven’t narrowed it down to the one or two things.”